Murder Trial Begins 13 Years After Ng’s Arrest

It has been exactly 13 years, three months and 20 days since the arrest of Charles Ng, the man accused of the gruesome killings of seven men, three women and two children in a remote cabin in Northern California.

Ng, 37, has so far eluded judgment day, but as one of the longest and costliest trials in state history finally gets underway in Santa Ana--opening statements begin today--family members of the victims say their optimism is tempered by weariness.

“We have seen so many lights at the end of the tunnel,” said Lola Stapley, 70, of Garden Grove whose son Scott is among Ng’s alleged victims. “You just hope it is not another train coming toward you.”

Stapley’s frustration with the slow pace of Ng’s case reflects the disillusionment many feel about a justice system they see as favoring the rights of criminal defendants over those of victims and their families. The trial is expected to last nine months to a year. It has already cost the state $9.6 million and the final tab may run as high $14 million, according to an official in Calaveras County where the case originated.

Ng is charged with killing his victims, including two couples and their babies, during a string of kidnappings in 1984 and 1985. He and a housemate, Leonard Lake, kept a chamber in a cabin in Wilseyville, a bucolic town about 150 miles east of San Francisco, where they allegedly tortured some of the victims before killing them. Lake was arrested in 1985 on unrelated charges, but killed himself shortly afterward.

Ng escaped to Canada where he was captured and fought a six-year extradition battle. Since his return to California in 1991, he has been able to delay his trial by filing myriad legal motions. The case was transferred to Orange County in 1994 because of pretrial publicity in Calaveras.

“It is clear the system is designed so that if you are particularly adroit, as Ng appears to be, at manipulation, you can drag things out, and this case is proof of it,” said Clark Kelso, a law professor at the University of the Pacific in Sacramento who has followed the case. But such long and drawn-out legal proceedings are rare, Kelso and other legal scholars say, and they caution against rushed calls for judicial reforms that such high-profile trials often elicit.

“It is not something (prosecutors) are seeing as a problem for them,” Kelso said. “Usually things do move forward.”

Amid the legal wrangling that has so delayed Ng’s trial, those who have lost loved ones say they have run out of patience.

“We’re full of the hearings and excuses,” said Sharon Sellitto, brother of Paul Cosner, whom Ng is accused of killing.

Sellitto has traveled to Orange County from Columbus, Ohio, for the trial. Her mother and stepfather were already here, waiting.

“We’d just like to have the trial start so we can find out what [authorities] know.”

Because of a gag order issued early in the case, officials cannot discuss details about the charges against Ng. But based on preliminary court proceedings, earlier news reports and interviews with victims’ families, the picture that emerges is a particularly horrid one.

Ng and Lake met in the early 1980s in Northern California. Lake, described as a survivalist type, was obsessed with the notion of an impending nuclear doomsday, according to diary entries introduced during court proceedings. He made plans for such a day, which allegedly included building a fallout shelter and enslaving women who would cater to his needs and help him repopulate the world.

After he met Ng, Lake allegedly enlisted him to help carry out the plan. According to authorities, from July 1984 to May 1985, the men kidnapped or lured victims to their cabin in Wilseyville where they stripped them of their possessions, killed them and disposed of the bodies by mutilating and burying them on the property. When investigators began digging through the terrain, they reportedly found the remains of at least 13 people. Trial evidence is also expected to include homemade videos that allegedly show Ng and Lake torturing two women.

The two men were caught shoplifting in a Bay Area lumberyard in June 1985. Police became suspicious when the car they were driving did not match its license plate. Lake was arrested, but Ng fled.

During interrogation, Lake committed suicide by swallowing cyanide pills sewn into the lapels of his shirt. Authorities began an international manhunt for Ng, who was caught a month later in Calgary, Canada, while attempting to shoplift a can of soda.

Ng fought extradition from Canada, which has no death penalty. The incident caused an international uproar with then-governor George Deukmejian and other American authorities demanding Ng’s return to California.

He was eventually transferred to face murder charges here, but his trial has been mired in dozens of motions filed by Ng to fire his attorneys and on other legal matters, including the removal of an Orange County judge for making disparaging comments about one of the lawyers. Even the Orange County bankruptcy threatened to derail the proceedings.

“We never thought it would take this long,” said Stapley, who last saw her son in March 1985 when he was preparing for a trip to Yosemite National Park.

“When it gets to the wire, you realize how tired you are and how hurt,” she said. “And you wonder, ‘How much more can I can take?’ ”

It is a feeling familiar to Paul Cosner’s family. Cosner disappeared Nov. 2, 1984. His car, a Honda Prelude he had advertised for sale in a local newspaper in San Francisco, was the one police found Ng and Lake driving when Lake was arrested. Authorities later found blood and bullet holes in the car, but Cosner’s remains were never found.

“It has occupied all our lives for 14 years,” said his stepfather, David Nessley Sr. The couple have logged thousands of miles going back and forth from their home in Ohio to hearings on the Ng case.

Sellitto, Cosner’s sister, is boggled by the thought of how much time has passed since her brother died.

“The Berlin Wall was still up,” she said. “Ronald Reagan was president.”

The pace of Ng’s trial will depend heavily on Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan, who inherited the case last year. Colleagues and attorneys describe him as a tough but fair judge with a sharp legal mind.

“He is in control of his courtroom,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Carolyn Kirkwood, who has presented cases in front of Ryan. “He doesn’t allow attorneys or anyone else to run the courtroom.”

Ryan set the tone early on, at one point admonishing Ng for “playing games within games within games” during the brief period Ng represented himself.

During the trial, the prosecution is expected to argue that Ng was a willing and active participant in Lake’s murderous plot, but Ng’s attorneys have indicated they will offer the defense that Lake was the main perpetrator of the crimes.

“[Ng] is guilty of something but not murder,” said Orange County Deputy Public Defender William Kelley during a recent court hearing.

Kelley is expected to introduce witnesses, including Lake’s ex-wife, Claralyn Balasz, who, Kelley said, can be seen in a video discussing Lake’s plan to kidnap young women to use them as sex slaves.

The attorneys in the case have spent the days before opening statements arguing motions about evidence and whether the stun belt Ng has been wearing should be removed for the trial.